Continuous foot-cap.



W. L. BLISS. CONTINUOUS FOOT GAP. APPLICATION FILED JAN.9,1912

Patented Sept. 2, 1913 [7 [715 W Zia/ 1157" ",L-zzmw z,3gz2s5. "B7122, a

UNITED sTAtrEs nrENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM L. BLISS,- F NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE UNITED STATES LIGHT & HEATING COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

CONTINUOUS FOOT-CAP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 2, 1 913.

Application filed January 9, 1912. Serial No. 670,278.

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM L. Buss, a citizen of the United States, residing at Niagara Falls, in the county of Niagara and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Continuous Foot-Caps, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing,I forming a part of this specification.

y invention relates to a continuous foot cap or device for increasing the security with which a car lighting generator is attached to its supporting frame on the car truck.

In modern car lighting systems it islcustomary to mount the generator on a supporting frame extending beyond the end of one of the car trlnlrs. One kind of generator supporting frame which has gone into extensive use is a swinging cradle or carriage including two parallel cross-bars on which the generator is removably mounted. The generator is provided with a pair of downwardly extending feet or lugs on each side. These lugs rest directly on the cross- 'bars and are usually provided with caps bolted thereto from beneath so that each lug with its cap bolted in place forms a close construction completely surrounding the cross-bar.

One of the ob'ects of my invention is to provide means or increasing the security of the attachment of the generator to the cross-bars by the employment of which means the probability'of losing one or more of the securing caps in service is eliminated.

Another object'is to provide a continuous foot cap extending from one cross-bar to the other and cooperating with opposite lugs of a pair, whereby this single means is suflicient to secure the generator at two points.

A further object is to provide a securing device for a car lighting generator which shall effectively hold the generator to one of the cross-bars by virtue of its attachment to an intermediate point in the generator and to the opposite side of the cnerator from said cross-bar and indepen ently of the securing bolts or liCiS on the adjacent side, which securing olts or studs may be lost, due to long continued vibration.

In the accompanying drawin s I have illustrated a preferred form 0 foot cap shown in connection with a car lighting generator and generator suspension to illustrate the manner in which the same is used in practice.

The views of the drawings are as follows:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a generator suspension showing one of the foot caps in side elevation. Fig. 2 is an end view on an enlarged scale of a portion of the construction shown in Fig. 1 and showing an end elevation of the foot caps.

The generator suspension selected for the purpose of illustration comprises a air of substantially parallel suspension are 1 of a car truck. In Fig. 1 only one bar appears as the second is, hidden from view by the first bar. Each bar is rovided with a downwardly extending end 2 having a twisted extremity 3. The generator is su ported directly on a pair of substantially parallel cross-bars 4 having their ends preferably bent upward in the form of depend ing links 5 pivoted at'6 to stirrups 7, carried by the sus ension bars 1. The cross-bars 4 and the links 5 constitute what might be termed a swinging cradle adapted to support the car lighting generator 8. The genera tor is driven by a driving belt, which passes around a pulley on the car axle not shown and passes also around the pulley 9 on the generator armature shaft. This driving belt extends to the left, as shown in Fig. 1, and tension on the belt is maintained by a tension device comprising the tension rod 10 passing through an opening in the twisted extremity 3, spring 11 and tension wrench 12. As the belt tension is adjusted from time to time by the tension Wrench 12, which varies the efl'ective thrust exerted by the spring 11, the generator tends to swing to a new position with respect to that show; in Fig.1. During such movement of the generator the cross-bars 4 rotate sli htly with respect to the generator, which atter always remains in upright osition in any position of ad- 'ustment o the sprin he generator is provit? d on opposite sides with a pair of downwardly extending feet or lugs 13 which rest on the cross bars 4 and conform to the circular section thereof. thereby permittin the slight relative rotation referred to. 11 order to securely hold the generator to the cross-bars and at'thc same time permit this slight relative rte tensioning device.-

cap accordingly acts as a cap for the corre-- sponding foot or lug 13 of the generator and with said lug completely incloses cross 'bar 4, thereby preventing the generator from being jolted oil the cross-bars when the car truck is traveling at a high rate of speed. If the cap portions 15, instead of being connected by an intermediate member, were entirely separate and distinct from each other it might happen that the studs securing one of the caps in place might become loose, due to long continued vibration, and might possibly drop from place and thereby permit the cap to drop otf.

If both caps on the same cross-bar should happen to be lost at the same time there would be danger of the generator being jolted from said cross-bars and dropping down to a position Where it might be torn loose altogether from its supporting frame, and cause very serious damage to the moving train. By connecting the caps 15 by an intermediate portion so as to form an integral structure 14 or continuous foot cap, the danger of such an occurrence as just described is greatly lessened, if not rendered absolutely impossible. By threading a wire 17 through openings in the heads of all of the five studs which pass through each foot cap, I am, in fact, enabled to prevent turning or loosening of any of the studs and thereby entirely eliminate the possibility of loss of the generator in the manner. described. The Wires 17 need not be employed since with this construction the generator would still be securely held even though several of the studs were lost from the continuous foot cap. For example, if both studs should drop from one of the cap portions 15, the studs in the other cap portion and the middle stud would hold the foot cap securely in place. In fact, as long as one stud remains securely in place the foot cap would be maintained in proper position, although the chance of losing more than one or two studs, even in the absence of a securing wire, is very remote.

A continuous foot ca may, of (it 'rse, be applied advantageous y to generators of lvarious types other than that illustrated iereln.

The generator supporting elements which are illustrated in the form of projecting feet or lugs, arranged near the lower part of the generator, may, of course, assume various other forms'and be otherwise located with respect to the generator frame.

I do not desire to limit myseh to the def tails of the foot cap described, as-this form was selected simply for the purpose of illustrating one of the various forms which the invention may assume. I desire, therefore, to cover suitable equivalent means for 110 complishing the desired result as long as said means fall within the scope of the up pended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Let ters- Patent of the United States is:

1. The combination with a car lighting generator having a pair of oppositely ar ranged supporting elements adapted to rest on supporting members, of a continuous foot cap secured to said generator and adapted to cooperate with said supporting members to maintain said generator supporting elements in engagement with said sup porting members.

2. The combination with a car lighting generator having a plurality of supporting elements adapted to rest on supporting cross-bars, of a continuous foot cap for maintaining said supporting elements in proper engagement with said cross-bars, said continuous foot cap being secured to said generator at a plurality 'of points of attachment, whereby the security of such attachment is not dependent on the security of each individual attachment.

3. In combination, a car lighting generator having opposite pairs of downwardly extending supporting lugs, each pair being adapted to rest on one of a pair of substantially parallel supporting cross-bars, and a continuous foot cap for securing each of a pair of oppositely disposed lugs to said cross-bars.

4. In combination, a car lighting generator having opposite pairs of downwardly extending supporting lugs, each pair being adapted to rest on one of a pair of substantially parallel supporting cross-bars, and a continuous foot cap for securing each of a pair of oppositely disposed lugs to said cross-bar's, said foot cap being bolted to said generator at a plurality of points.

5. In combination, a car lighting generator having opposite pairs of downwardly extending supporting lugs, each pair being adapted to rest on one of a pair of substantially parallel supporting cross-bars, and a continuous foot-cap for securing each of a pair of oppositely disposed lugs to said cross-bars, said foot cap being bolted to each of said opposite lugs and being also bolted dire y to the generator frame.

6. In combination, a car lighting generator having opposite pairs of downwardly 

